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Russell, Davis spark LSU rout of Fresno State

Oct 22, 2006 - 4:19 AM BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- JaMarcus Russell, Craig Davis and Louisiana State had an enjoyable first meeting with Fresno State.

Russell threw two touchdowns and Davis had a TD catch and returned a punt for a score as the 14th-ranked Tigers pulled away from the Bulldogs, 38-6.

Russell completed 15-of-19 passes for 210 yards and Dwayne Bowe had four catches for 106 yards and a TD for LSU (6-2), which is idle next week before visiting seventh-ranked Tennessee in its return to Southeastern Conference play.

Trindon Holliday gave the Tigers a quick 7-0 lead when he scored on a 38-yard run just 4:08 into the contest. It was his first career touchdown.

Davis made it 14-0 just under 2 1/2 minutes later with a 77-yard punt return for a TD.

"That was a shocker to me," Davis said. "I had great blocking the whole way. I wasn't optimistic before the game about catching the ball, because it was slick. It's starting to be fun. Now I feel like I can break one any time. I never thought I'd be doing this, but I wanted to step in and be a leader."

"We give punt returns a serious emphasis in our practice," LSU coach Les Miles said. "Craig has the ability to run the ball. If he gets a sliver, he'll hurt you. There were some great blocks on that return, and there were some loud blocks on that return."

The score was just 17-6 before LSU's Alley Broussard broke off a 21-yard scoring run with 5:40 to play in the third quarter.

Russell put away the contest with TD passes of 58 yards to Bowe and 30 yards to Davis early in the fourth period.

Bowe's TD catch was the 21st of his career, tying the LSU mark set by current Tampa Bay Buccaneer Michael Clayton.

"That's a great guy to compare (Bowe) to," Russell said. "He's got a lot more (TDs) coming."

"(The record) feels great, but we're going after some bigger goals," Bowe said.

Sean Norton went 13-of-20 for 134 yards for Fresno State (1-6), which began its season with a 28-19 Western Athletic Conference triumph over Nevada but has not won since. The Bulldogs were facing the Tigers for the first time.

"That team (LSU) can play with anybody in the country, and I watched their game against Florida," Bulldogs coach Pat Hill said. "It's just a shame that a team with a 6-2 record like that in the way football is right now is considered not being in it."

The opening kickoff was delayed about 15 minutes because of a thunderstorm.

"That field was in really, really good shape," Miles said. "We had a deluge. You think about how much rain we had, yet we were able to run, cut and run our routes. I have to give a lot of credit to our grounds crew."